You're Not Going to Miss All Those MacBook Ports

Imagine a utopia where you pack your suitcase with one cable

When Apple revealed the new MacBook at Monday's launch event, the company took two accepted qualities of laptops and remade them. The first is a new take on the keyboard, which I'm frothing to touch. But it's the second simple revolution—the decision to give the new MacBook a single port—that has me in awe.

I love anything that trims excess. There's a Bruce Lee quote: "Hack away at the unessential." It's true in writing, and it's true in product design, especially when it means fewer cables in our lives. The reveal of the one-port MacBook reminded me of the smug satisfaction I felt when I showed friends my first MacBook Air and they openly wondered how you'd watch movies, get music, or play games without a CD drive.

Getting to one

The USB Type-C port is the only break in the MacBook's smooth exterior aside from a 3.5mm headphone jack. It's a tiny port, 8.4mm by 2.6mm, about the size of an Android phone's micro-USB slot. Apple's Lightning connector, for comparison, measures 7.7mm by 1.7mm. A USB group chairman told Ars Technica, "The target for the spec was to make it as small as the micro USB, but in the end we made it as small as possible, and we're still about 10-15 percent away from that goal."

There's a Bruce Lee quote: "Hack away at the unessential"

The reason it couldn't be smaller is also one of the plug's best qualities: USB-C is reversible. There's no wrong way to plug it in, and no tiny graphic to look at when connecting. That's a quality that always bothered me about the 30-pin connector on the iPhone 4S and its predecessors, and part of what made Lightning worth the transition. It's a simple peg in a hole. Building USB-C that way design requires more silicon, but that's a worthwhile tradeoff.

USB-C is also a performance marvel. Data can move through the port at up to 10 gigabits per second. That'll translate to crazy-fast file transfers. USB 3.0, which you'll find on most modern gadgets, tops out at 5 gigabits per second.

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More importantly, and the reason the new MacBook gets away with a single port, is that USB-C can handle power of up to 20 volts at 5 amps, or 100 watts. The charger on my now-antique 2011 MacBook Air (which still costs $79 to replace)? That thing's rated to 45 watts. USB-C means fast charging for all the MacBook's tiered batteries. Plus, USB-C can send power both ways. Plug the cable into a wall and the port will draw power to charge the MacBook. Plug in a camera and that same port can send power from the MacBook to the camera. For durability, though, will going between charging and discharging the battery shorten it's life-span? I'll figure that Apple's thought of that, but they have been known to skirt battery longevity issues before.

A new USB world

As usual, Apple will ease the transition to its new port. You can spend $19 for an adapter to connect USB-C to regular USB. A USB-C to HDMI or VGA adapter will cost $79 (though, if you're spending that much, you might as well get a $69 Apple TV and just send your laptop's screen to the TV). Expect ethernet and SD card adapters to follow. Yeah, an adapter is a pain to remember to bring, but the time will pass.

My one big worry is that to make all this work, Apple will ditch the quick-release magnet that's been on its power cords, allowing the connection to break if you trip over the cord. With a USB-C connection, making the mistake of tripping over your power cord could send your laptop flying off the table. With a battery that'll last nine hours, though, intermittent charging will make that danger less likely.

Something even Apple detractors should quietly applaud is that USB-C isn't proprietary

The greatest part of all this, and something even Apple detractors should quietly applaud, is that USB-C isn't proprietary. It's an industry-wide standard that's showing up on devices like Google's new Chromebook Pixel. There are already flash drives that take USB-C. Put one in my UE Megaboom and my Bluetooth headphones, and I can throw out the rat's nest of cables sitting behind my desk.

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